Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Thursday,
Leadership is something God’s “Grand Narrative” addresses very often. Leadership in the family; the marketplace and even leadership of the nation! God has very strong opinions about leadership in every aspect of society! And today we jump into one of the most important leadership scenes in all of human history!
We ended yesterday in a peaceful time in Israel’s history, the season when Samuel was Israel’s spiritual leader and judge. I presume it lasted about 40 or 50 years since it began when Samuel was a young man and lasted till he was very old. (1 Samuel 7:15-17)
As Leadership is important so Leadership Succession is also very important, because so easily all the progress made under a great leader can erode away quickly without a good succeeding leader who will ‘stay the course’ and build on what has been accomplished.
One of the best examples of God directed, God honoring leadership succession is the transition from Moses to Joshua. God clearly chose Joshua and guided Moses in handing over his leadership roles to Joshua before Moses died. (Numbers 27:12-22; Deuteronomy 31, 34) The successes outlined in the Bible book of Joshua are a great testament to the effectiveness of that leadership succession between Moses & Joshua.
But as we’ve seen in our study of the Bible book of Judges, there was NO such leadership succession plan given by God to Joshua! Thus when Joshua died, no God appointed leader took over and 300 years of chaos followed, requiring God to raise up an occasional man or woman to be Judge over Israel.
The obvious question is WHY? Why was there no God given leadership succession plan? In fact this phrase summarizes the leadership chaos of those centuries after Joshua. Joshua 17:5 & 21:25 both say: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”
While Samuel was a unique, God raised up leader for Israel during an ‘Ichabod’ dark time, as Samuel grew old, another leadership crisis arose in Israel which reshaped the nation’s path forward! 1 Samuel 8:1 tells us Samuel assumed his sons would have learned from him and would be ready to lead well, so he placed them in leadership in his old age.
But quickly that backfired and the tribal elders confronted old Samuel with words no Dad ever wants to hear: “You are old and your sons do NOT follow in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Oh my how that must have broken Samuel’s heart. Bad enough that his sons did not meet expectations, but worse…the Israel elders asked for a leadership structure which they saw in the pagan nations around them: one man, a king, who would have all authority to lead however he chose!
Now we need to pause right here to understand how tragic and traumatic their request is. From the beginning, from the days of Abraham, as God had explained the Land and People Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, there was never any discussion of a leadership or governance structure other than what God stated at Mt Sinai: “If you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex. 19:5,6)
God was describing something unique in national governance called a THEOCRACY. It means GOD is the King over His people. God makes the rules. God defines the culture. God leads the people, and the people fully submit to God as their King and follow Him obediently, always! No other people in the world, then or now, could imagine such a leadership arrangement, but at Sinai the people responded to Moses by saying: “We will do everything the LORD has said.” (Exodus 19:8; 24:3,7) And do you remember a generation later the people repeated their covenant commitment to Joshua by saying “We will serve the LORD our God and obey Him.” (Joshua 24:24)
When Joshua died, God had everything in place for His Theocracy to work well. There was no need for a human king. Why?
1. God had challenged every Israelite to love HIM with all their hearts and teach their children to do the same! (Deut. 6:4-9) Their obedience to God’s leadership was to be individually, personally motivated by their all consuming love for God!
2. God had given His people His commandments as guiding life principles. (Ex. 20)
3. God had defined WORSHIP of God as the very core of their culture (Leviticus) and God promised His Presence would be among His people, at that special place of worship, the Tabernacle. (Ex. 29:45)
4. God had given them many social laws to guide them in social living and justice. (Ex. 21-23)
5. God had identified the Levites and priests to be spiritual leaders living throughout the land available to help the people live God honoring lives. (Joshua 21)
But sadly, very quickly after Joshua died, the Israelites proved they were incapable of living in the relationship with God which God had designed them for and invited them to! They were selfish, fearful, argumentative, rebellious and repeatedly, generation after generation, they turned away from God, living in chaos. Now as Samuel grew old, the people were weary of 300 years of chaos without a single, strong leader, they wanted a human king like all other nations!
Samuel asked God what to do, and God’s response was painful but realistic: “Listen to the people…it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected ME as their King.” (1 Samuel 8:7-9) Samuel then was very graphic in warning the Israelites what a human king would demand from them and what disasters would be their future with a human king. (1 Samuel 8:10-18) But the people insisted, they were adamant and shouted at Samuel: “No! We want a human king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations…” (1 Samuel 8:19,20)
There it is my friends, the defining moment of total rejection of God by Israel! First, they had backed away from God at Mt Sinai in fear, refusing God’s invitation and they sent Moses to meet with God, not wanting to hear God’s voice themselves. (Ex. 20:18-21) Then repeatedly, they turned their hearts away from loving and worshiping God by embracing the idols of their pagan neighbors. (Judges 3:7)
Now they refuse God’s leadership, His Kingship, insisting on a human king so they can be like all other nations!
Surely you can see the downward spiral which started with their hearts, then their minds and finally their determined will, all turned away from God. It’s the well worn path of the vast majority of humanity, in every generation, everywhere in the world, my friends. So now we need to look closely…do we see the same pattern in our nation, our city, our extended family, maybe even in ourselves?
Tomorrow we’ll look at the result of this dramatic, cataclysmic decision by the people of Israel. For today let’s look closely at ourselves, our families, our cities and nations… have we done the same? Do we understand the damage which results when we push God away?
More reflection notes are in the Grand Narrative link just below and of course I invite you to reflective worship with the song link at the bottom of this page, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Samuel 8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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